The present invention relates to a solar heating plant adapted to provide heat and hot water for a dwelling or similar habitable structure.
Modern civilization is a product of technology resulting from readily available sources of economical power and heat. Unfortunately, as civilization advances and creates increased demands for energy, the readily available and classical sources become inadequate to meet civilization's demands. Therefore, new sources of energy must be tapped to satisfy modern technology's ever increasing demands.
Numerous solar energy plants of various design adapted to provide heat and hot water have been contrived throughout man's recorded history. Unfortunately, the efforts to date are inefficient and do not provide adequate heating capabilities during inclement weather, at night or when it is most needed during the short days of the winter months. Attempts to overcome the various inefficiencies of known systems have resulted in increasingly complex solar energy plants which become prohibitively costly and unreliable due to the increased complexity and failure modes.
Attempts have been made to simplify the solar heating problem by providing a plurality of heat absorbing surfaces. These attempts have also met with economical failure due to the costs involved in procuring and installing the large number of heat exchange units required and because of their tendency to reradiate absorbed heat into the atmosphere whenever the sun is not shining on the heat exchange elements.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus which overcomes the aforementioned problems by providing a simple, relatively low cost solar heating plant adapted to provide both heat and hot water.
A further objective of this invention is to provide a solar heating plant which utilizes a condensing lens adapted to follow the sun and focus its energy on a relatively small heat exchange surface to minimize reradiation losses.
A still further objective of the present invention is to provide a solar fluid heater capable of achieving temperatures high enough to cause movement of the fluid thru the total heating system without the aid of pumps.
A further objective of this invention is to provide a solar water heater capable of providing heated fluid for a closed cycle heating system in which the fluid is moved as a function of the sun's energy during periods of heat generation and by a pump means when the sun is not shining.
It is a still further objective of the present invention to provide a solar heating system which includes a recirculation means for heating fluid in combination with means to add additional water automatically as hot water is extracted from the system.
The foregoing and other objectives of the invention will become obvious when one considers the following specification and drawings wherein: